Inside The Box- Routine 14

Mad Scientist's Lab

I always loved watching the campy ‘50’s movies that had bad sci fi themes. What most of them had in common was the scientist’s lab, so I thought, what if you were to add the illusions, leave them as helpless victims and had the mad magician do the “operating” live on stage

Illusions Used: Mismade Girl, Zig Zag girl, thin model sawing, Metamorphosis (others can be used)

Assistants needed: One for each illusion

What the audience sees: The magician invites all his assistants out on stage to do a campy set up to a 50’s style Mad Scientist homage. He grabs the first assistant and places her in a Zigzag and proceeds to perform the illusion. The magician leaves her in three pieces and goes to grab another assistant. The magician places the assistant inside Mismade girl, separates the boxes and mixes all the boxes up. The magician opens the doors to show the assistant is mixed and leaves her. The magician grabs a third assistant and places her in the thin model sawing. He cuts her in half and leaves her in two pieces. The magician grabs the fourth assistant and puts her in a bag and places her inside the trunk. The magician proceeds to jump on top of the trunk and lift the curtain. When the curtain is lowered, the magician is gone and the fourth assistant is there in his place. The fourth assistant proceeds to try and put the other assistants back together. Once all the assistants are back in one piece, the four assistants then go over to the locked trunk, open it up and release the magician.

How to perform it: This is just a medley of illusions all done one after another, with the magician doing “damage” to the assistants and the assistant who does the metamorphosis doing “damage control”. All the assistants know that they will be in their props longer than normal, and that one assistant is going to get them out.

Variations: Other props can be used:

Origami

Sword Basket

Compressed

Cube zag

Tubed Out

Anything that an assistant can stay in for a while

The more visual the illusion, the better.

For comedy effect, the assistant who is used for the Metamorphosis can play it as a ditzy airhead. The magician can use two thin model sawing’s and have the assistants switch bottoms, not knowing which legs are for which assistant. The assistant can put boxes to the Mismade all over the floor while the doors are open (go back to Mismade Mess for that)

If the routine is used for “torture” routines, since the assistant’s faces are showing, they can ridicule the magician, and when the assistant is freed from the trunk, ask her to “repair” her first.

Alternate ending: After all the assistants are let out of their illusions, they go over to the trunk to let out the magician. They open the trunk and the bag inside contains another assistant and the magician escapes to the back of the theater. This is done by having a slit in the back of the curtain so the hidden assistant who ends up in the trunk can get into the trunk. The assistant who appears on top of the trunk holds the curtain a little longer at chest height to let the magician sneak out the slit and hide behind the trunk. While the audience is concentrating on the assistant “repairing” the other assistants, the magician sneaks offstage and makes his way to the back of the theater for his appearance.